In this issue:

• Tips For the Hobbyist Programmer - by Tom Nally
• Measuring an Angle - Teaching Geometry with Liberty BASIC - by Janet Terra
• Filling Listboxes Using Maphandle - by Ken Lewis
• About GUIs - by Alyce Watson
• Converting Old Programs - by Gordon Sweet
• API Corner - Installing Fonts - by Alyce Watson
• Tip Corner - Enable/Disable, Show/Hide - by Alyce Watson
• Demos:
  • Stopwatch for LB4 - by Bill Beasley, with help
  • Run a File Using Parameters - by Gordon Sweet
• Newsletter help
• Index

Notes from the Editor:

Liberty BASIC 4 has been officially released! [http://www.libertybasic.com] Grab your copy as soon as you can, because there are many great new features! You can upgrade your license for a small fee, so why not "go gold?" The command set is expanded and the Liberty BASIC editor has some very useful new tools! Watch your bookstores for the third edition of Wallace Wang's book, "Beginning Programming for Dummies." It features Liberty BASIC 4! I have a copy of the second edition, and Wang writes very clearly and he is also quite amusing, so this book is a great introduction to programming and to Liberty BASIC. Congratulations to Carl Gundel, and thanks for all of the hard work that went into this update!

This issue begins with Tips for the Hobbiest Programmer by Tom Nally. He provides an excellent blueprint for programming for fun, creativity, and intellectual stimulation. He also gives us a glimpse into the methods he uses to develop his own programs, like all of the great simulation programs, and Humble CAD, a real, computer assisted drawing program written in Liberty BASIC. Thanks, Tom! For more on Tom's many programs, see Nally's Applications.

This month Janet Terra shares a terrific program that combines math and graphics in "Teaching Geometry with Liberty BASIC." This is a great aid in the classroom! There is a wonderful graphic protractor that makes great use of Liberty BASIC graphics commands. Janet makes it pretty clear that Liberty BASIC beats Power Point as a classroom teaching aid! Great job, Janet!

Ken Lewis tackles one of the more complex and confusing new commands in Liberty BASIC 4 - MAPHANDLE. This command is incredibly handy in certain instances and Ken uses it for a mutli-player game scorecard system in quite a clever way. Thanks, Ken!

"Build a GUI" starts at the very beginning, explaining what a GUI is, how it is built, how it is used, and how it is manipulated. This is a beginner's tutorial that is especially appropriate for those migrating to Liberty BASIC from QBasic and other DOS languages.

Gordon Sweet has a lot of experience with earlier BASIC programming languages and he's spent a lot of time and effort in converting many of his older programs. He knows the "gotchas" and this month he's sharing his experience in converting graphics from old programs. Very good, Gordon!

This month's API corner demonstrates how to retrieve the location of the FONTS folder on any system so that a font needed by your program can be installed on the user's computer. It also demonstrates a clever way to move a file by API.

The tip corner this month showcases some very handy and easy-to-use new commands for Liberty BASIC 4. They are enable/disable, show/hide. These commands work with all controls except menus.

The contributions of a generous community led to the Stopwatch Demo included in this issue. One member of the online community shared a graphical blood pressure dial, and this inspired others to take it in a new direction and create a graphical stopwatch. Thanks very much to Janet Terra, Gordon Sweet, Stefan Pendl, and Bill Beasley for writing the demo and for allowing us to publish it in this issue.

Gordon Sweet also shares a handy demo to show how to run a program using parameters. Thanks for sharing so much, Gordon!

- Alyce Watson